How To Get Your Leg Higher in Three-Legged Downward Dog
How To Get Your Leg Higher in Three-Legged Downward Dog
Feel like your lifting leg is a dead weight in Three Leg Down Dog (Tri Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana)? Does trying to lift your leg higher make your calves and hamstrings burn like the dickens? Then this post is for you!
The “Trifecta” Required for Three-Legged Down Dog
Being able to extend the top leg high into the air when in Downard Dog is basically asking your body to kick that leg into a full front split (or oversplit for you exceptionally bendy people) while maintaining one foot on the ground. The three biggest “pieces” required are:
Hamstring flexibility for the bottom leg: Because we need to tilt our pelvis forwards (reach the tailbone toward the ceiling) to help extend the top leg, this pulls our bottom leg into a deep hamstring stretch. The more flexible our hamstrings are in that leg, the more we can tilt our pelvis and make it easier to lift the top leg. Calf flexibility can be a secondary limiting factor that can make downward dog less comfortable if you have tighter calves (although it doesn’t directly impact the tilt of the pelvis)
Hip flexor flexibility for the top leg: Any time we are extending a leg behind our hips, we are stretching out the hip flexors in the front of the hip. The more flexible hip flexors you have, the more you can reach that top leg up and “behind” your hips towards the sky
Glute strength for the top leg: to be able to pull the lifted leg higher, this is even more important if you have tight hamstrings and hip flexors because your glutes have to not only pull your leg up against gravity, but they’re fighting against your tight muscles too
How to Assess What’s Holding You Back (and How to Fix It!)
For all of these “tests” you’ll want to practice next to a mirror so you can watch your legs, or film yourself and review the video.
Hamstring Flexibility in the Base Leg
The Test:
Start in your three-legged down dog with your back flat and lifted leg straight, lifting it as high as you can while keeping both hip bones square to the floor. Make a note of how high you can lift the leg.
Lift your heels if this feels very intense on your calves
Then bend the knee of your basing (bottom) leg to lessen the hamstring stretch
With the knee bent, really try to exaggerate your pelvic tilt forwards, reaching your tailbone up as high as you can towards the ceiling. Are you able to tilt your pelvis more and lift that top leg a little higher? If so - then continuing to work on your hamstring flexibility can help!
Note: tightness in your hamstrings (and/or calves) in forward folds such as Down Dog can also be a potential sign of sciatic nerve tension - so it’s worthwhile to do a quick test (here’s how) to see if the sensations you’re feeling are likely muscle-related, nerve-related, or both.
The Short Term Fix: Bend your bottom knee (there’s no shame in bending the knees!) to lessen the hamstring stretch and allow your pelvis to properly tilt. If you have any sciatic nerve tension, you can also do some nerve glides early in your training to help mobilize your nerves, and try to keep your heels lifted (ex. put blocks under your heels) when doing Downard Dog
The Long Term Fix: Work on your hamstring flexibility (although you probably already suspected this!). Specifically, doing active flexibility exercises that help strengthen your hamstrings at their most lengthened position (like bodyweight good mornings) as well as exercises that help strengthen your hip flexors when they’re in their most shortened position (like back-lying leg lifts) will help improve your hamstring flexibility over time.
Related Blog Posts: Why Are My Hamstrings Tight? (and How to Fix Them) and 4 Active Hamstring Stretches for Beginners
Hip Flexor Flexibility in the Lifting Leg
The Test: Frankly, this one’s pretty guaranteed - more hip flexor flexibility will help you lift the top leg higher. But a fun way to test in your own body is:
Start in your regular three legged downward dog, with hips square, and the top leg thigh facing the floor (in the photo I’m flexing my foot so you can see the leg rotation easier, but you can point your toes if you’d like)
Keep your hips square (both hip bones stay level with the floor), but externally rotate your lifted leg, rotating your thigh/knee/shin towards the outside. This takes away some of the hip flexor stretch
Can you lift your top leg higher while the leg is externally rotated?
The Short Term Fix: If maximizing leg height is your goal - open up your three legged down dog: externally rotate the top leg (like the test above) and un-square your hips. The higher you can hike up the lifted leg hip, the higher you’ll be able to kick up that leg!
The Long Term Fix: Work on those hip flexors! Working on strengthening your hip flexors while they’re in a lengthened position (like doing active lunge variations), as well as strengthening your glutes to help with hip extension (see below) will help open up your hips and make it easier to lift that leg higher. These are some of my favorite hip flexor focused drills.
Glute Weakness in the Lifting Leg
Even if you have the flexiest hamstrings and hip flexors in the world, if your glutes aren’t strong enough to lift the top leg, you’re going to be out of luck!
The Test:
First do your regular three legged down dog on the floor and note how high you can lift your back leg (in a mirror, or take a video/picture)
Then scoot yourself over to a wall and try your downward dog with your heels about 6 inches away from the wall. Lift a leg and slide your foot up the wall as you try to straighten that leg. Feel free to adjust how close/far you are away from the wall if you get stuck
Can you get the leg higher when you can rest the foot on the wall?
The Short Term Fix: Use the wall for support! A wall supported 3LDD is a nice variation of a standing split. Alternatively, you can bend your top knee, bringing your heel closer to your butt - this shortens the “lever” of your leg, making it less effortful of your glutes to try to lift.
The Long Term Fix: Work those glutes baby! But specifically, work your glutes in leg extension - meaning exercises where you are trying to pull your leg backwards (that means not squats). This lying down hip extension exercise is my #1 favorite hip flexor stretch that’s also a very appropriate glute strengthener.
